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View Full Version : Add more RAM to my laptop?


ya3
July 22nd, 2006, 08:29 PM
It's a Pentium M 1.6GHz, 5400rpm HD, 256mb RAM. Opening and trying to use Photoshop is extremely sluggish (hangs for short periods, quite unresponsive, even with the simplest things). It's not bogged down with heaps of unnecessary stuff - mainly just used for web browsing. If I bump the memory up to, say, 1gb, will I see a dramatic improvement in performance? Because as far as I can see, the RAM is the only thing that's not quite up to scratch.

Thanks :D
Maxtr0sity
July 22nd, 2006, 09:08 PM
Upgrade that RAM son! 256 is unacceptable, you will definitely notice a difference with more RAM.
Templarian
July 22nd, 2006, 11:03 PM
For a 1.6ghz which isn't very slow for running PS and stuff i'd say upgradding the ram is worth it and should help out on those load/opening of files and everything else you may be doing. See when you run out of ram it will store variables on the hard drive which is dramatically slower on your laptops HD.
Esherido
July 22nd, 2006, 11:22 PM
Definitely need to upgrade your RAM. If you could upgrade your motherboard to get some more high performance RAM that would be even better, but I know that would be nigh impossible in a laptop and very hard on a PC at that. Also getting a 64-bit version of Windows might help too, and maybe a faster hard drive.
kirupa
July 22nd, 2006, 11:45 PM
On a Pentium M, a 64-bit Windows won't even install ;)
Esherido
July 22nd, 2006, 11:48 PM
On a Pentium M, a 64-bit Windows won't even install ;)

And I'm the only person in the world they don't tell that to! Dang! (Sorry 'bout the uphenism) I hate it when stuff like this happens to me!
ya3
July 23rd, 2006, 01:16 AM
It's "euphemism" ;)

Thanks for the input, guys. I guess I'll grab a couple of 512mb sticks :D It takes PC2700 RAM, so I guess that's reasonably fast.

I just recently replaced the HD, too (factory one died). Would've looked for a 7200rpm one if I knew :(
Maxtr0sity
July 23rd, 2006, 01:18 AM
If there's two slots w/ one 256 occupied, shove in a 1Gb and watch it fly.
ya3
July 23rd, 2006, 02:05 AM
Blargh... Why does notebook RAM have to be so expensive :lol:
hybrid101
July 23rd, 2006, 06:26 AM
^totally agreed!
Esherido
July 23rd, 2006, 09:25 AM
I'm a desktop guy, notebooks cost to much for their performance, a decent gaming notebook is already $2000, sheesh. Desktop RAM is exspensive, notebook RAM is worth it's weight in gold! (Just a guess :) )
ya3
July 23rd, 2006, 09:48 AM
Naahhh... I think the fact that you get everything nicely packed into an inch-thin device makes it worth the extra money.
Maxtr0sity
July 23rd, 2006, 10:14 AM
Yea, a 1GB will run you $100, but it's well worth the investment.
ya3
July 23rd, 2006, 10:16 AM
Try ~AU$180. I'll get it soon enough :D
hybrid101
July 23rd, 2006, 10:25 AM
i'm getting 1gb ram +60 internal for $200 dollars. laptop price. is it cheap for that?
ya3
July 23rd, 2006, 11:06 AM
You've got 60mb atm? :|

And I think US$200 is way too much :P ...or is that Australian $?
hybrid101
July 23rd, 2006, 11:34 AM
i meant 60 gb internal HD
ya3
July 23rd, 2006, 11:38 AM
Oh :lol:
Yeah, sounds good!
Theros
July 23rd, 2006, 12:48 PM
Laptop ram is acutally cheap.... much cheaper than it used to be heh.. It's around 1 $US per thingy... ex. 1 gig is around $100... But anyhow, how old is that laptop?
Esherido
July 23rd, 2006, 01:15 PM
I'm guessing 3-5 years old based off of processor and RAM, maybe even older than that. Let's see if I'm right. :D I love seeing how well I can make an educated guess.
ya3
July 23rd, 2006, 09:16 PM
Bought July 2004 ;) Not THAT old.
hl
July 23rd, 2006, 09:27 PM
I'm guessing 3-5 years old based off of processor and RAM, maybe even older than that. Let's see if I'm right. :D I love seeing how well I can make an educated guess.
Bad guess. The pentium M at 1.6ghz hints that its a bit more recent.
Anogar
July 23rd, 2006, 10:20 PM
I was pretty amused when it occured to me that my iPod has just as much internal storage space as my older Powerbook. :stare: (60GB)
Theros
July 23rd, 2006, 10:23 PM
kinda sad eh? my 3-4 year old dell laptop has like a 40 gig harddrive and it's only 5 pounds lol....
Anogar
July 23rd, 2006, 10:27 PM
Yeah, rather funny. :P
ya3
July 23rd, 2006, 11:13 PM
I was pretty amused when it occured to me that my iPod has just as much internal storage space as my older Powerbook. :stare: (60GB)
Why? Can your iPod run OS X, too? :luigi:
hl
July 23rd, 2006, 11:15 PM
You could always use the iPod as an external harddrive. Install OSX on the iPod and run it off of that. You'd have to format it to NTFS or Fat32 though.
ya3
July 23rd, 2006, 11:18 PM
You could always use the iPod as an external harddrive. Install OSX on the iPod and run it off of that. You'd have to format it to NTFS or Fat32 though.
1) It's HFS for Mac OS ;)
2) This has been discussed before - an OS would be too intensive to be run off an iPod for extended periods and would burn it out quickly.

:dog:
Jolly_Fat_Man
July 24th, 2006, 01:10 PM
I'd actually recomend you upgrading to 2GB of ram. That would probably improve performance quite a bit. :ko:

You'd have more RAM than processor and I believe that's a good thing since the processor takes it's sweet time to get things from the RAM. Which means it's getting stuck there for some time.
hl
July 24th, 2006, 01:14 PM
1) It's HFS for Mac OS ;)
2) This has been discussed before - an OS would be too intensive to be run off an iPod for extended periods and would burn it out quickly.

:dog:
A)Don't know about all the file systems.
B)It's like running Ubuntu off of an external harddrive. You don't have to put it on your primary.